Finishes

Brick:

Color:

The façade features buff-colored accents created with an antique-white cement, field-stone colored coarse aggregate and two depths of sandblasting.

Award:

PCI Design Award for — Best All-Precast Solution

DESIGN CHALLENGE:Create a mixed-use development incorporating retail, commercial and residential spaces that will provide an aesthetically pleasing design that blends with other downtown revitalization underway. The project also must be completed quickly and offer a durable design while meeting LEED certification standards.

At 100 feet tall, the eight-story structure features a total precast system to create 6,196 square feet of retail or office space, 30 residential condominiums with 600 to 3,000 square feet and a 905-car parking structure on the first level.

All structural framing systems as well as the exterior envelope use precast components, including 7- and 12-inch load-bearing walls, R-beams and L-girders that support 10-foot-wide double tees, and 6-inch flat slabs. The double tees feature three inches of field-applied concrete topping. A 7-inch fire wall was supplied between the parking and residential levels as required by code.

Precast concrete panels clad the exterior, using a combination of sandblasted and thin-brick veneered finishes. These were enhanced with the use of reveals for shadow lines, creating a hand-laid limestone block and brick appearance. Integrally cast heads, sills and other exposed-concrete accents with reveals helped complete the project in less time and at lower cost than other options. The schedule was further sped by casting MEP accessories, such as conduit, boxes and embeds and openings, integrally into the panels.

The façade features buff-colored accents created with an antique-white cement, field-stone colored coarse aggregate and two depths of sandblasting. A modular 12-foot precast panel concept was created to assist in the production of panels for the fast-track construction schedule. The schedule and budget also were aided by making the precast panels serve as load-bearing supports for the interior double tees and flat-slab decking.

“The all-precast structural framing and exterior envelope contain a great variety of precast elements woven into a beautifully designed exterior. The architectural precast certainly allowed design creativity that blends the exterior with the downtown area. This is an economical, speedy solution to a challenging list of owner demands. Casting conduit, electrical boxes and mechanical boxed into the wall panels makes this project truly unique and gives total precast concrete solutions even more new benefits and advantages.